[van-announce] Community Events Digest

SFPIRG sfpirg at sfu.ca
Fri May 29 16:40:13 PDT 2009 

Community Events Digest
    ==Social justice events happening in and around Vancouver==

1.	Root Down, Rise Up - May 29th
2.	StopWar Coalition's Annual General Meeting - May 30
3.	Pakistan Forum May 30th
4.	Storytelling our Lives Returns - May 30th
5.	Film Screening “WARRIOR BOYZ” - May 30th
6.	Sticking Our Noses In: A Panel On Military Intervention - May 31
7.	Picket the Jewish National Fund May 31
8.	Hobo Film Festival - Spartacus Books - May 31
9.	Daring to Dream - The Midwives of Possibility - June 2
10.	Author Yves Engler to speak in Vancouver - June 2
11.	Al Jazeera English - Campaign for Democratic Media
12.	Radio Jobs

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Root Down, Rise Up:

Filipino Youth Address Settlement and Integration Issues Through the Arts

Since 1999, Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/ Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance has hosted “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance” an annual cultural showcase featuring the talents of Filipino youth. RRR is a venue for margnizalized youth to express and communicate their concerns with issues such as migration, racism, gender and identity.  Through poetry, song, dance, hip hop, music and art, youth are able to share their experiences. With cultural forms, they educate and empower not only themselves, but the community.

In 2009, RRR is held under the theme “Root down, Rise up!” addressing the need for settlement and integration of Filipino migrants and families to Canada, and calling for genuine participation and equality for the community in Canada.

Friday, May 29. 7:00 pm.
Sir Charles Tupper Secondary Auditorium | 419 East 24th Avenue, Vancouver.

Tickets:
sliding scale $10-$20
$5 for Low-income youth and Students with ID

For more info call Carlo or Ayex: 604-215-1103
or email: ukpc_fcya at kalayaancentre.nety.

Roots, Rhymes, and Resistance will take place this Friday, May 29, 2009
Venue: Sir Charles Tupper Secondary at 419 East 24th Avenue, Vancouver
Featuring performances by Toxic Slime Clique,
Sinag Bayan Cultural Arts Collective, Kuyas
United in Solidarity, Renovation Under, Fresh
Groove and more!

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StopWar Coalition's Annual General Meeting 

Saturday, May 30, 10am to 3pm

at the Maritime Labour Centre (111 Victoria Dr, 2 blocks north of E. Hastings)

Join us to discuss the challenges facing the anti-war movement and to plan
the upcoming year of organizing. 

Featured speakers include: Gord Hill of No2010.com on the security climate and the Olympics, Dave Markland on the situation in Afghanistan and Sid Shniad on the Israel lobby and its impact on our movements.

Lunch by donation.

*For regular updates on the war in Afghanistan, be sure to follow http://stopwarblog.blogspot.com

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Pakistan Forum May 30th

BUILDING PEOPLE TO PEOPLE SOLIDARITY
CREATING REAL "HOPE" AND "CHANGE" FOR PAKISTAN

PUBLIC FORUM AND DISCUSSION
************************************************************
SATURDAY, MAY 30th, 2009
2 pm - 5 pm
Newton Library
13795 - 70th Ave, Surrey
Light refreshments provided
Free Event
************************************************************

Join us for a public forum and interactive
discussion on what the future holds for Pakistan.

ORGANIZED BY:
Fraser Valley Peace Council, Siraat Collective and
Pakistan Action Network (www.pakaction.org)

"If they snatch my ink and pen, I should not complain,
For I have dipped my fingers in the blood of my heart.
I should not complain, Even if they seal my tongue,
For every ring of my chain is a tongue ready to speak"
                                                         (Faiz Ahmed Faiz)

Media headlines and pundits have been inundating
us with images of Pakistan as a nation on the
brink of disaster. Pakistan is facing many
critical issues: the expansion of the U.S. led
War on Terror into Pakistan with continued drone
attacks, Obama's AF-PAK strategy, the
government's deal in Swat, the rise of religious
extremism and a majority of the population living
in poverty without access to basic human rights.

Yet there is also another Pakistan, one in which
one of the most vibrant struggles for democracy
and rule of law has recently resulted in victory,
where poets, lawyers, activists, journalists and
other Pakistanis are forging movements of
resistance against U.S imperialism, religious
extremism and injustice.

In this context, what does the future hold for
Pakistan? Speakers will discuss the various
issues facing Pakistan and provide an analysis
and framework for what we can do as concerned
members of the public to contribute to building a
movement for justice and peace in Pakistan.

SPEAKERS:
Haider Nizamani, Sunera Thobani, Huma Dar

For more information:
email: pakact at gmail.com
phone: 604-613-0735
For more Info call Carlo or Ayex: 604 215 1103 or email
ukpc_fcya at kalayaancentre.net

Door open 7:00 pm Please arrive early. Tickets
are sliding scale $10-$20, $5 for low income and
students with ID. you can find more information
and a full list of performers at

http://www.RootsRhymes.wordpress.com

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* SATURDAY MAY 30: STORYTELLING OUR LIVES RETURNS! *

If you missed this exciting production last year, don`t make the mistake
again!

‘Storytelling Our Lives: Stories of Displacement and Migration’

In September 2008, as part of a 1 year workshop collaboration between No
One Is Illegal and neworldtheatre, ‘Storytelling Our Lives` was produced
and involved young people of colour sharing their personal stories of
immigration and displacement.

It is coming back this week in a (slightly smaller) production hosted by
Salaam Vancouver, Rainbow Refugee Committee, and Gallery Gachet. The
production includes Salaam Vancouver and Rainbow Refugee Committee members
sharing their personal stories.

Saturday May 30th, 7:30 pm. FREE!
at Gallery Gachet 88 East Cordova St (just West of Main)

Background on the project: Through this project No One is Illegal and
neworldtheatre hope to jointly contribute to bridging the gap between art
and activism by bringing into focus the individual faces and unique
stories of those who have gone through the migration process. This project
draws upon the deeply rooted and central role of culture, creative
expression, and storytelling as key components of resistance movements by
providing a connection between personal narratives and global
understandings. Visit: http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=888

_______________________________________________
Vivamantra Films and The National Film Board of Canada in association with Canwest Presents

“WARRIOR BOYZ”
A frontline documentary that examines Vancouver’s growing Gang culture 

Surrey Premiere 
Saturday May 30th 4pm  & 7pm Hollywood 3 Cinemas 
(7125 –138th Street, Surrey, B .C)Tickets 5.00 partial proceed to go to Surrey Urban Youth Project

Q&A after each screening with a panel discussion after 7pm show

BC broadcast premiere on Knowledge Network June 2 at 10pm

In attendance– Baljit Sangra (Director/Producer), Sukh Rai (VP Frank Hurt Secondary), Indira Prahst  

(sociology professor Langara), Balwant Sanghera (South Asian Coalition Against Youth Violence) and 

other guests TBC.

Ticket and event info: 604-837-2976  or  www.facebookcom/pages/WarriorBoyz  &  

www.myspace.com/warriorboyz
Film info: www.nfb.ca/warriorboyz
Warrior boyz trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItbByym_EDc

Warrior Boyz was recently nominated for three Leo Awards for Best Documentary 

(History/Social/Political category), Best Director and Best Cinematography

Jagdeep carries the reminders of his gang experience mapped across his body in the form of bullet wounds and machete scars. A steady pattern of escalation pulled him deeper into the criminal world, until, he says “I was gonna be dead.” His experience is an ominous warning to 15-year-old Tanvir, whose life is a free fall of alienation and violence. 18-year old Vicky, who is struggling to graduate from high school, refuses to even talk about his past for fear of retaliation. 

Warrior Boyz focuses on the experience of two young men and the people who are fighting to help them resist the lure and false glamour of gang life.In a world where memory and tradition are fading, replaced with suburban strip malls and fast food joints, where a quick cell phone call can summon 50 kids armed with knives, bats and machetes, it is a struggle for some kids to reach their 25th birthday.

To date, more than a hundred young men from the South Asian community have died in gang-related violence in Metro Vancouver; A pattern that is replicated in different communities across the city. But behind the body count and the ripped from the headlines news stories, a far different battle is being waged. Educators and parents who want to see an end to gang violence are taking action. Sukh Rai, vice president at a major Surrey secondary school, says kids are “looking for connections in the wrong areas, with the wrong people.” 

Warrior Boyz takes an unflinching look at the root causes of gang violence, and offers real solutions and hard-fought hope for the future. Whether it is teachers who find ways to keep kids in school or parents who forego the endless push of consumerist culture to spend more time with their children, moments of courage, tenacity and courage endure.

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STICKING OUR NOSES IN: A PANEL DISCUSSION ON MILITARY INTERVENTION

 Sunday May 31, 2009
 6:00pm to 7:30pm, 581 Cardero Street

 FREE
 (following the 4pm Matinee of Palace of the End)

 Moderated by Camyar Chai (Leave Out Violence)
 
This exciting panel consists of:

Deborah Campbell Vancouver-based international political journalist
Peter Prontzos Political Science Professor at Langara College
Juergen Dankwort Institute of Victimization and Social Justice
Riadh Muslih Canadian-Iraqi Activist and Publisher
Don Wright Amnesty International Vancouver
Derrick O'Keefe Stop War Coalition
Jane Cutter ANSWER Seattle

PALACE OF THE END
 by Judith Thompson  
presented by Touchstone Theatre in association with Felix Culpa and Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
  Dates
 May 21 – June 6 2009 Performing Arts Lodge (PAL) Theatre, 581 Cardero Street

 Three scalding monologues make up Judith Thompson’s Palace of the End:
a shockingly funny portrayal of the soldier who took the fall for the
Abu Ghraib prison scandal; the dying reflections of the weapons
inspector who blew the whistle on government justifications for the
invasion of Iraq; a tea party with a mother and political leader who
suffered unfathomable loss at the hands of Saddam Hussein. Whatever
your views on the war, this play will unsettle you with its startling
beauty.
                
“Palace of the End raises the bar . . . searing . . . elegiac, beautifully specific.”  LA Times

"One of Canada's foremost women of letters." – Toronto Star

Directed by David Bloom, Katrina Dunn, and Mindy Parfitt
Starring Alexa Devine, Russell Roberts and Laara Sadiq
Set by Yvan Morissette
Costumes by Farnaz Khaki-Sadiq  
Lighting by John Webber
Sound by Brian Linds

Tickets

Adult $26 Senior $20 Student $16 including all service charges
Call 604 684 2787 or visit www.ticketstonight.ca
Performance Times
Tuesday - Saturday 8pm;
Saturday 2pm;
Sunday 4pm

_______________________________________________

Picket the Jewish National Fund May 31

Sunday, May 31, 5 pm
Four Seasons Hotel, W. Georgia & Howe, Vancouver

Canada Palestine Association-Vancouver
(www.cpavancouver.org ) is calling for a picket
against the Jewish National Fund (JNF) Negev
Dinner on May 31/09 at the Four Seasons Hotel in
Vancouver, Canada.

The Picket will protest against the continued
theft of Palestinian land by the JNF and
discrimination by the JNF against Palestinians,
even those who are citizens of the state of
Israel. With the theme of the Jewish National
Fund equals 61 years of Palestinian
dispossession, the picket will also commemorate
the 61st anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba.
The JNF and its tax-deductible status are of
particular concern to all people in Canada
concerned with genuine justice because of the
infamy called "Canada Park", built by the JNF on
three destroyed Palestinian villages.

Endorsed by: Solidarity for Palestinian Human
Rights-UBC, Jews for a Just Peace, CanPalnet,
Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign.

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HOBO FILM FESTIVAL
A unique collection of trainhopping films
North American tour!

WHEN: Sunday May 31, 5:00 PM
WHERE: Spartacus Books
     684 E. Hastings St., Vancouver BC
     Unceded Coast Salish Territory

$5-$10 donation, no one turned away for lack of funds

 From their website:

     The railroad industry in America has played an immense role in  
the development and progression of our modern society. Besides its  
most obvious role as a life line for supplies and sustenance to newly  
burgeoning towns and industry, it helped spawn an incredible  
subculture of people, the hobos and tramps of America. These hobos  
used the trains during the great depression in order to seek work, and  
a whole society of people grew around the railroads.

     Agency Films has long been associated with the railways and has  
produced multiple short films and television programming around the  
subject of train hopping and have made it their mission to preserve  
the history of the American train tramp. We have generated national  
interest due to our increasingly popular television shows, You Tube  
broadcasts, and the yearly Asheville Rejects Film Festival.

  For more info, check out http://myspace.com/hobofilmfest
_______________________________________________

Daring to Dream:

Introducing the Midwives of Possibility

An intimate evening of poetry, storytelling and performance to celebrate solidarity in action.

Tuesday, June 2

Starting at 6:00 pm
Rhizome Cafe
317 East Broadway
Vancouver – Unceded Coast Salish Territory

With readings and performances by:

Cecily Nicholson
Cynthia Oka
Hari Alluri
Lily Shinde
Naava Smolash
Proma Tagore
Sara Kendall
Setareh Mohammadi

This event is a fundraiser to support Cynthia Oka – a young poet of colour, single mom and community organizer – in attending the Voices of the Nation (VONA) Poetry Workshop in San Francisco. This year’s workshop participants will be mentoring with acclaimed Palestinian American poet, Suheir Hammad. For more information about VONA, check out www.voicesatvona.org

Donations of $5-10 are suggested, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. 

Cynthia is deeply thankful to all the folks who have already donated so generously to support her. There's just a still a ways left to go to make this journey happen.

Let’s celebrate together the (re)birth of possibility and self-determination by a loving community.

For more info, contact 604-710-5480 or cynthia.oka at gmail.com

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Author Yves Engler to speak in Vancouver

BOOK LAUNCH:

"The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy "

With author Yves Engler

TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 7 pm
Harbour Center, 515 W. Hastings St., Vancouver

Where does Canada fit in on the world stage? As
peacemaker or accomplice to war and empire? Just
published, The Black Book of Canadian Foreign
Policy sheds light on many dark corners of
Canadian foreign policy--from troops that joined
the British colonial war in Sudan in 1885 to
neo-colonial war and occupations in Haiti, Iraq
and Afghanistan today.

"We bear responsibility for what governments do
in the world, primarily our own, but secondarily
those we can influence, our allies in
particular.Yves Engler's penetrating inquiry
yields a rich trove of valuable evidence about
Canada's role in the world and poses a challenge
for citizens who are willing to take their
fundamental responsibilities seriously."- -Noam
Chomsky

Organized by STOPWAR.ca

Endorsers: Dominion paper; Haiti Solidarity BC;
People's Co-Op Bookstore; Vancouver Socialist
Forum; (others to follow).

To read more on the book: http://blackbook. foreignpolicy. ca/

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We want Al Jazeera English in Canada!

The Campaign for Democratic Media (CDM) is launching a campaign in support of Al Jazeera English’s 

application to the CRTC (Canada’s broadcast regulator) to air in Canada. The deadline for comments is 

June 8, 2009.

Please visit:

http://www.democraticmedia.ca/aljazeera

There you can link up to an automated form letter (with the option of adding personal comments) directed at the CRTC asking it to approve AJE's application to air in Canada.
Al Jazeera English is renowned for its high journalistic standards; for its fearless, unembedded reporting, including in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; for giving a global voice to the South; for speaking truth to power; and for its diversity of voices from around the world.

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Two national radio job postings that may be of interest:

Groundwire Coordinator
http://ncra.ca/business/JobPostings/dspJobPostingsDetail.cfm?ID=84868

Summer Student - Building on the Native Programmers Network
http://ncra.ca/business/JobPostings/dspJobPostingsDetail.cfm?ID=84930

Charlotte Bourne
Program Coordinator, CJSF Radio

(p) 778-782.4423
(w) www.cjsf.ca 

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